Thursday, January 22, 2015

*uses Shout of Earth to clear dust off keyboard*This article is from an issue of Gamest magazine from early 1998 by way of the Daigo Fanpage. It sprang to mind after Xiaohai beat Daigo in an Evil Ryu mirror at the Canada Cup Masters Series.

About Winning
by P. Suzuki
tl NH2

The results for the Vampire Savior Gamest Cup on November 2nd 1997 were: first place: Umehara, second place: Ohnuki. Many Vampire Savior fans will see this, say "well that was expected," and move on. You might not know, however, that one of these guys once felt like "I can't win."

Shinya Ohnuki, the Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gamest Cup champ with his female-character mania was having fun playing games. He used Morrigan in Vampire Hunter and continued using her when Savior came out before switching to Lilith. Here's where destiny started. As he was getting confident with Lilith, Ohnuki faced Daigo Umehara (who would use Jedah -> (Bulleta ->) Bishamon) at a tournament and he was soundly defeated. This is where the battle of fate began.

During a flurry of tournaments in Tokyo, Ohnuki switched back to Morrigan from Lilith. At that point Umehara was already using Bishamon. Their second meeting ended in defeat for Morrigan. Ohnuki also tried Lei-Lei with no luck.

Finally just "to defeat Umehara" Ohnuki tossed his female characters and started using Bishamon. Even with the new character he continued to struggle. He entered eight qualifiers for the Sega Cup and was eliminated from all of them. Having long disliked Q-Bee, Ohnuki was being driven mad by bugs flying around when he went to bed.

Nevertheless, Ohnuki level up a great deal by the time the Gamest Cup qualifiers were under way. He had his famous "10-0!*" outburst while fighting Anakaris and started to become well-known amongst Savior players.

Finally the day he beat Umehara arrived. By this point, he had only won an odd game here and there with Lilith and Lei-Lei. Using Bishamon he won three games in a row (and lost four.) It seems Umehara was burned by this turn of events. This incident became known as "The Legend of the 0.2 Second Credit Feeding**" and is still talked about today.

It was around this time that Bishamon's unblockable fireball was discovered (Umehara grasped it first) and players were training hard for the Gamest Cup. By some quirk of fate Ohnuki's opponent in the finals was Umehara who won 2-1. Ohnuki had been losing for six months.

He didn't quit playing Savior, however. Practice continued and he won some tournaments here and there in December. Matches with Umehara grew about even.

Saying "I can't win" and quitting the game is one way to go but please understand that going so far as to switch characters like Ohnuki is another way. He gathered information, trained hard and was able to blossom. Incidentally Umehara went through a similar trial in Vampire Hunter. It's not just having fun winning. Don't just play the game - be moved by it.

* A character ranking diagram reference - this is written out "juu-zero." Later used as a team name by Chikyu Anakaris and Nuki himself.** "Ren-koin" literally chain coin: when you insert another 50 yen ignoring people who might be standing waiting to play behind you.
1997 Timeline of VS Events

May
---
Nuki 97 game win streak with Lilith.

One-touch Guard Cancel developed.

Nuki Lilith (X) vs. Daigo Jedah (O)
at Ikebukuro Maru-ge Ya

June
---
Nuki switches to Morrigan. Meets Yokohama Lei.

Nuki Morrigan (X) vs. Daigo Bishamon (O)
at Shinjuku Flamingo

July
---
Nuki switches to Lei-Lei under Yokohama Lei's guidance.

Nuki Lei-Lei (X) vs. Kawamura Aulbath (O)
at BET 50

August
---
Nuki Lei-Lei (X) vs. Daigo Bishamon (O)

Nuki switches to Bishamon under Shibisha's guidance per Daigo's advice.

Loses at eight Sega Cup qualifiers.

Melissophobia.

Anakaris "10-0!" incident.

September
---
Nuki develops his own Bishamon style. Qualifies for Gamest Cup.